June 30, 2006
Turkey Bowling
TechSideLine.com has an interesting article up today reviewing ACC bowl performance over the past 13 years. Why 13 years? Because that's exactly the length of the current Virginia Tech bowl streak. So, it's a bit of a self-serving sample, but it's still a good review of recent history.
The Hokies have been to a bowl in each of the past 13 seasons, but have gone only 6-7 in those games.
Florida State has also been to 13 consecutive (24 actually) bowl games, including an incredible 11 BCS games in that period. The Seminoles have 8 wins and 5 losses in those games.
Surprisingly, Virginia ties Miami for third place with 11 bowls. Miami's number was hurt a bit by probation, but is boosted with 6 BCS appearances in their 11 games.
Boston College's stats stick out for this reason - in their 9 bowl games, they have 8 wins! That's an amazing percentage, and those 8 wins tie FSU for the most over this period.
Curiously, bitter rivals UNC and NC State have performed nearly identically, with 8 bowls and 5 wins.
An interesting item that someone might remember better than me -- if we go back to the 1997 season (when we had our own streak) we had been to 10 consecutive bowl games (1987-1996), fewer than only FSU and Michigan. Am I remembering that correctly? And could somebody please refresh my memory as to why we didn't go to a bowl game in 1997?
In 1997 we also went 7-4 but had started out slowly, heading into November at 4-3. We went into our final game as unranked 6-4 underdogs to a Virginia Tech team that had gone 44-14 the previous four-plus years. Georgia Tech, who we had beaten earlier that year, was also 6-4 with a home game against #10 Georgia remaining. The Bulldogs scored with eight seconds left to pull out a victory.
We won convincingly, 34-20, but ACC rule 2(b) (Virginia gets shafted whenever possible) showed its head and Georgia Tech got the invite to the Carquest bowl. We had been there the previous year, that and our reputation (deserved or not) for not selling tickets gave them the nod.
| Lee J. Cockrell wrote: |
| ACC rule 2(b) (Virginia gets shafted whenever possible) showed its head and Georgia Tech got the invite to the Carquest bowl. We had been there the previous year, that and our reputation (deserved or not) for not selling tickets gave them the nod. |
Yes, yes. A very ugly, self-fulfilling theory. Virginia fans don't travel, so let's send them to an underwhelming, unappealing bowl on a bad date, while letting Clemson, NC State and/or Georgia Tech take the bowl that UVA's record would seem to have earned them. And then - wonder of wonders!! - the Cavalier faithful seem once again unwilling to travel to Shreveport to play TCU! See, I told you they don't travel.
Even better is just leave them out of the bowl picture altogether so as to help blunt any momentum the program might be building.
Very frustrating, especially when you look at the numbers that show that given comparable bowls, Virginia fans travel every bit as well as their conference rivals (excepting maybe VT).
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